I always wondered that, at a few shows where he has been an MC he goes back to he is the reason mma is big in the uk? But didn't know enough to go into it myself, seems like a nice chap to be fair.
Just think he likes the limelight so is hanging on to it, FairPlay though, he beat frank Mir haha.

I know he's not actually a fighter but I would put Dave O'Donnell in there to some extent. He brought some big names over to fight in Cage Rage from overseas and provided a good platform for guys like Epstein, Bisping etc.

There were many factors contributing to the emergence and growth of MMA. Singling out individuals misses the key point that there was a lot of mutual self interest which meant that a lots of people helped each other out directly or indirectly. Freeman getting into the UFC was a factor but so was Andy jardine getting moderately big US names to fight on his show; then theere's the pioneering work of Lee Hasdell which predated both of those things and those early promoters who invested in proper cages (Adams, Jardine, Truman, not sure if Lee H ever used a cage).

Even if Bisping did bring new fans, he wouldn't have got the exposure if Bravo hadn't invested in screening TUF

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